Illegal Practice/s

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Rachel Jayne — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:46:29 GMT

I saw only my second "failed" chip this week - we replaced it FOC.

I can count on one hand the number that have fallen out & that's usually been immediately at the time, or on recovery if they were done whilst the patient was VD for surgery.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Sal the 1st — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:02:03 GMT

[quote user="FINNIGAN"]

we charge £36 for micro chipping,

[/quote]

wow - thats dear. we only charge 17.50 or 15 if done at time of vaccination or whilst under GA for neuter etc. I know a pet shop locally who is doing them at 13.50 and the council dog warden when they are doing them only charge 10. When I was working in corporate they were charging 22.50 and they must have been making a really big profit on these as they had a huge group discount ( they were also one of the dearest in the town) I suppose a lot depends on your area, profit margins, and how much clients will pay.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

FINNIGAN — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:07:23 GMT

i am sure in our practise we would just put another chip in, we charge £36 for micro chipping, but would only x ray if owner requested it or it was necessary for pet passport.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Aimee Barber — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:42:04 GMT

Ive had a couple of migration chips and seen one 'pop' out. the chip company will normally replace them for free (as in remburse the practice), so thats just a bit ridculous!!!

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Vicky RVN — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:45:16 GMT

In nearly 4 years at my last practice I saw one chip fail/go missing. Was a dog that had come in for passport, was checked and couldn't be found with different scanners. We didn't xray, just replaced. Not sure if owners were charged for new chip or not. Since being in a new job since March we've had a few in which chip hasn't been found (checked with one scanner). Replaced FOC if from the chip company we use, they give us a replacement. We check chips at vacc. Old practice didn't, so who knows, there could have been cats/dogs walking around without functioning chips. I try to remember to check Jacks from time to time! For the first time in the 100's i've implanted, I had an owner come back the other day because chip had fallen out. Felt really silly

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Sal the 1st — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:58:16 GMT

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/pets/documents/microchips-failure.pdf

re the pet passport dog we had and linked the chips - have just found this, dont know if it has changed recently? But I do know we took advice before it was decided to leave non functioning chip in place

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Caro Laithwaite VN — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:48:45 GMT

Waiting for different vet to scan Donna works so may take bit of time
Present vet been told no way paying for x-rays
Next step.........

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Sal the 1st — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:18:12 GMT

why does there always have to be somebody at fault? I agree it isnt the owners fault the chip may not be working (and we havnt definitely established that yet ?) but if the animal is presented at a practice that didnt place the original chip ( and dont forget many chips are actually placed at dog and cat shows and pet shops and indeed by dog wardens these days) is it the fault of the practice either? if you have to apportion blame should it be with the chip company? (but if the chip wasnt done in the practice how the hell do you know which company made it - you can easily find which data base its on but the manufacturer unless the owner has the paperwork, and lets face it most dont, may remain a mystery, or could you take the blame bit a bit further and say its the manufacturer at fault? It is possible to link 2 chips to one animal (which is what happened with our case) it just means somebody has to speak to somebody else at the data base - it just takes a phone call or at worst two.

just as with anything else there will be failures, nothing is perfect at the end of the day so long as the dog has a working chip and the owner isnt out of pocket.....

Best solution I can think of in this case is to try a different scanner or more if you really need to make certain and if they still arent picking up the chip and they are working on other chips in the practice ok then assume it isnt working and put in another chip. If the original chip was placed at the practice then for the sake of the cost of a chip the practice bears the cost and attempts a claim back from the chip company. If the owner wants an xray then they bear the cost but for gawds sake if that chip isnt on the film and it is a 'drop out' then dont charge them for it.

my head hurts too this is getting far more complicated than it needs to be and we still dont know for certain if the chip is defective or not.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

christinam — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:35:10 GMT

But who's fault is it?!!

Who is responsible and what is the next step??

Untraceable chip/ failed chip/ migrated/ misplaced chip.

Who picks up the bill?....

Was about to say not including FB reactive chips, but again who??......!!

And what if (as Caro said many posts ago!) that it's the practice scanner failure, but now animal has two chips??? Do you advise both chips are kept updated or is one connected to other?

Oh my head hurts!!

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Sal the 1st — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:45:18 GMT

At the practice where I was the dog was xrayed because it had a pet passport and we had to prove that the original non working chip was in situ - ie so it was the same dog with a non working chip and not another dog with no chip if that makes sense. A new chip was then placed but original non working chip was left where it was. The only chips I have seen removed was the one on the sharpei which was causing a fb reaction and had stopped working ( which was fairly easy to find) and another on a dog which had migrated which to be honest was not causing the dog a problem it was the owner that wasnt happy ( and even tho we had a good idea where it was through rads was an absolute sod to locate and remove)

Re: Illegal Practice/s

christinam — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:31:25 GMT

Recently I worked in a practice that an animals chip 'failed'. One vet said would need to XR and remove b4 rechipping, but the other vet just rechipped.

What is correct practice?

Have this all highlights the need to rescan at discharge/recheck/ routine vacc's (and at new older animal registration - which is a whole new thread!!).

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Gemma Burden RVN — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:21:09 GMT

I've known of a couple "fail", but as the company we get our chips from will provide a replacement chip so that the animal can be re-chipped for free the owners of these animals have never gone for xrays, so I can't say for sure that the chip was still there. One was also a "stray" that had been brought in and scanned numerous times, only for the owner to come in and accuse us of stealing her cat when we had had him over a week and were looking for a home for him. But then again, we had a cat a few years ago thats chip had migrated to right at the base of his skull and the owner didn't want him re-chipped. It was a biothermo chip, and when he was hospitalised I spent ages trying to find the chip to get a temperature and even though I knew roughly where the chip was it was really difficult to find. If he had been brought in as a stray no one would have found the chip. It was still reading, but I guess the position complicated things. I just don't get how someone could justify those prices though. My practice is not in a cheap area, and we don't pretend to be a cheap and cheerful practice, but we don't charge anywhere near that for a chip, and if the chip had failed I doubt we would charge to re-chip even if we couldn't get a replacement chip from the company.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Caro Laithwaite VN — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:47:27 GMT

Will update once she has had it rescanned and also spoken to chip company. Many thanks for comments

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Tracy Windler RVN — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:15:34 GMT

Yes, do get both sides of the story first, but does sound rather extreme! Only ever seen one failed chip in 9 years of nursing, but quite a few migrations and "pop outs" (including my pain in the *** cat!) Keep us updated!

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Caro Laithwaite VN — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:11:14 GMT

From all l know it was fine when placed and checked think couple yrs ago.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

chris beasley — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:10:48 GMT

The only time I have seen a fail - is when the x ray shows it isnt there! Must have fallen out, but when?

PS was not done at our practice - thank goodness!

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Katie Mansfield — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:09:48 GMT

Come to think of it I have actually seen a chip fall out, but that was discovered only a couple of hours after it had been done, on an inpatient luckily, otherwise it might have been missed. The dog was being discharged and the nurse in charge fortunately saw the chip lodged in his fur. Quickly the dog was re-chipped and all that happened was the paperwork had to be re-done. Makes me wonder though, Caro, how long ago did your friend have his dog chipped? If the dog at my work lost his within a couple of hours could it be possible for a dog who was chipped during routine vacc lose the chip in the same way and the owner not notice? It wouldn't become evident until next vacc time when the dog was scanned. Just a thought,

K x

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Caro Laithwaite VN — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:08:49 GMT

Spoken to her she isnt happy with them and general treatment. As per my advice she will be going to other vets to get dog scanned it is only a yorkie so not big dog. We agree about cost being ridiculous she isnt in an expensive area. She will be contacting the chip company to discuss it with them l explained about migration.... that wasnt mentioned to her.
Thanks for that Sal l havent known any fail just migrate.

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Sal the 1st — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:51:12 GMT

have only come across 4 chip failures in 20 odd years

This was one of them. Another in a Vizla which just stopped working for some unknown reason after a couple of years. We did check with different scanners and same result and in the finish we did xray just to check the chip hadnt migrated and that was why we couldnt pick it up - and it was still between the shoulder blades. The original chip was not removed but a replacement chip was placed and registered and the charge for that was the same as an ordinary chip placement but we did make a charge for the xray ( I should add that this was a necessity for this dog because he needed it so he could travel on a pet passport). Another chip failure was in a sharpei - the dog was already having a fb reaction to chip so whether that caused it we dont know but chip had already ceased to work before it was removed. The last failure was just two weeks ago and was a failed chip prior to implant. So yes I have seen failures but not that many. £44 for a chip replacement sounds expensive to me but guess it depends where yo are in the country and what their standard chip price is? (ours is quite a bit less than half that)

Re: Illegal Practice/s

Katie Mansfield — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:43:06 GMT

That's very odd

Has your friend contacted the chip company? Or did he go ahead with the XRay etc?

K x